commbox Asia

Deepening the Understanding of Social Media Impact in Southeast Asia

Ross Tapsell

Singapore: ISEAS (2020), 17 pp.

"Southeast Asia’s Internet users are far more diverse than usually reported. They range from the urban youth with laptops and high-speed Wi-Fi, to the older generation semi-rural and rural users with affordable mobile phones for Facebook and WhatsApp. Southeast Asians generally trust social media ... more

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Journalism and Communication in China and the West: A Study of History, Education and Regulation

Bing Tong

Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan (2020), xxi, 366 pp.

"This book sheds new light on the study of journalism and communication, considering why and how journalism is studied in the 21st century. It notably offers both an international and interdisciplinary comparison of journalism and communication, examining the history of Chinese and Western journalis ... more

Security challenges for journalists and the mass media in advancing free speech in war torn countries: The case of Afghanistan

Mohammad Tamim Sediqi, Farid Sufian Shuaib

Journal of Islamic Law, volume 16, issue 1 (2020), pp. 59-77

"The challenges faced by journalists and mass media in war torn countries are serious. The same could be said to be the case in Afghanistan. Though freedom of speech and of the mass media are among the on-going struggles of the Afghan people after the fall of the Taliban regime, it is worrying that ... more

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The Rise of Secular Nationalist and Islamic-Based Populist Communication Strategies: New Threats to Indonesian Media and Journalists' Freedom

Nyarwi Ahmad

In: Handbook of Research on Combating Threats to Media Freedom and Journalist Safety

Sadia Jamil (ed.)

Hershey, PA: IGI Global (2020), pp. 124-146

"This study aims to examine the impacts of secular nationalist and Islamic-based populist communication strategies advanced by Jokowi and Prabowo on the Indonesian media and journalists' freedoms during the presidential elections of 2019. To address this topic, this study uses the qualitative method ... more

Food, Frustrations, and Family Dynamics: Assessing the Use of Film to Promote Joint Household Decision-Making

TOMAK (2020), 18 pp.

Introducing Vigilant Audiences

Daniel Trottier, Rashid Gabdulhakov, Qian Huang (eds.)

Cambridge: Open Book Publishers (2020), xiii, 342 pp.

"The authors engage with a range of cross-disciplinary perspectives in order to explore the actions of a vigilant digital audience — denunciation, shaming, doxing — and to consider the role of the press and other public figures in supporting or contesting these activities. In turn, the volume il ... more

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How to lose the information war: Russia, fake news, and the future of conflict

Nina Jankowicz

London: Tauris (2020), xxvii, 259 pp.

"Since the start of the Trump era, the United States and the Western world has finally begun to wake up to the threat of online warfare and the attacks from Russia. The question no one seems to be able to answer is: what can the West do about it? Central and Eastern European states, however, have be ... more

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Shifting Dynamics of Contention in the Digital Age: Mobile Communication and Politics in China

Jun Liu

Oxford: Oxford University Press (2020), xv, 211 pp.

"To advance interdisciplinary understanding, Shifting Dynamics of Contention in the Digital Age outlines a communication-centered framework that articulates the intricate relationship between technology, communication, and contention. It systematically explores the influence of mobile technology on ... more

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A Review on the Safety of Journalists in Turkey: A Victims' Rights Perspective

Bora Ataman, Baris Çoban, Özlem Erkmen

In: Handbook of Research on Combating Threats to Media Freedom and Journalist Safety

Sadia Jamil (ed.)

Hershey, PA: IGI Global (2020), pp. 148-171

"In the neoliberal media autocracy of Turkey, mass media are propaganda tools rather than the public watchdogs. The coup attempt in 2016 gave the government additional power to institutionalise this regime. Critical journalists have become the enemies of the state and suffered from threats from vari ... more

The Digital Exclusion of Women with Disabilities: A Study of Seven Low- and Middle-Income Countries

London: GSMA (2020), 43 pp.

"1. Women with disabilities have among the lowest rates of mobile and smartphone ownership. In most countries, ownership gaps are widest between men without disabilities and women with disabilities. Even in countries where the mobile gender gap is small or nonexistent, there is still a disability ga ... more

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Chinese Independent Animation: Renegotiating Identity in Modern China

Wenhai Zhou

Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (2020), xii, 222 pp.

"This study of 'independent' animation opens up a quietly subversive and vibrant dimension of contemporary Chinese culture which, hitherto, has not received as much attention as dissident art or political activism. Scholarly interest in Chinese animation has increased over the last decade, with atte ... more

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Keeping it Clean: Exploring Discourses of Development on Indian Community Radio

Bridget Backhaus

Third World Quarterly, volume 41, issue 12 (2020), pp. 2130-2147

"Community radio in India operates within a clear framework of development. This calls into question the fundamental purpose of community radio: communication rights, activism, voice, community participation or development? Drawing on ethnographic research conducted at two rural stations in South In ... more

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Digital Hinduism

Xenia Zeiler (ed.)

London; New York: Routledge (2020), 283 pp.

"Digital Religion does not simply refer to religion as it is carried out online, but more broadly studies how digital media interrelate with religious practice and belief. This collection explores Digital Hinduism and consequentially studies how Hinduism is expressed in the digital sphere and how Hi ... more

From Digital Divide to Social Inclusion: A Tale of Mobile Platform Empowerment in Rural Areas

Lisha Ye, Huiqin Yang

Sustainability, volume 12, issue 6: 2424 (2020), 16 pp.

"The digital divide in rural areas is an important social issue, especially in developing countries. Although Internet and broadband penetration have increased in the world generally, there are many obstacles for rural China to get access to ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and its ser ... more

Reporting in Conflict Zones in Pakistan: Risks and Challenges for Fixers

Kiyya Baloch, Kenneth Andresen

Media and Communication, volume 8, issue 1 (2020), pp. 37-46

"As a backbone of reporting in war and conflicts, fixers offer essential assistance to the foreign correspondent in conflict zones, also in Pakistan. With valuable local knowledge and contacts, fixers can arrange travel to secure entry of foreign correspondents into conflict zones in addition to sec ... more

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Indian Sound Cultures, Indian Sound Citizenship

Laura Brueck, Jacob Smith, Neil Verma (eds.)

Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press (2020), vi, 330 pp.

"Indian Sound Cultures, Indian Sound Citizenship addresses the multifaceted roles sound plays in Indian cultures and media, and enacts a sonic turn in South Asian Studies by understanding sound in its own social and cultural contexts. "Scapes, Sites, and Circulations" considers the spatial and circu ... more

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Snapshot of a Shadow War: A Preliminary Analysis of Twitter Activity Linked to the Azerbaijan–Armenia Conflict

Elise Thomas, Albert Zhang

Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), International Cyber Policy Centre (2020), 29 pp.

"The rapid escalation in the long-running conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia which took place in late September 2020 has been shadowed by a battle across social media for control of the international narrative about the conflict. On Twitter, large numbers of accounts supporting both sides have ... more

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The Causes and Consequences of Plagiarism by Journalists in Central Asia

Bahtiyar Kurambayev

Asian Studies Review, volume 44, issue 4 (2020), pp. 691-708

"Central Asia has been generally omitted from most academic debates, including those on the causes and consequences of widespread plagiarism and copy-and-paste behaviour among journalists. In this article I address this problem by interviewing working journalists from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikis ... more